Beets & Blood Orange

I took a trip to the Union Square Farmers Market in the East Village in Manhattan. It's really an amazing farmers market - they have nearly everything any grocery store would have - vegetables, eggs, dairy, meats, honey, oils, vinegars, bread - and it's all local and organic.

I picked up some beets, some pea shoots, and some red veined sorrel (a delicious and beautiful herb with a strong lemony flavor). Then I stopped at the grocery store nearby to grab a few blood oranges.

I just simply boiled the beets in salted water until they were tender (about 1 hour), then cooled them down in ice water. Then I rubbed off the outer skin with a paper towel and ripped the beets into bite size chunks so they had a nice organic shape.

Then I got some of my other salad ingredients together - some thinly sliced onion, some pepitas (from my pantry), and some nice cross sections of the blood orange.

Now it's time to put this salad together! I tossed the beets in a bowl with salt, pepper, olive oil, honey, lemon, balsamic vinegar and a little thinly sliced onion.

Once the beets were seasoned nicely and tasted good, I went to fridge to grab the créme fraiche and started my plate with a few dollops. Then I arranged the beets that I just seasoned in the bowl and added the blood orange segments, a little more créme fraiche, some pepitas, pea shoots & red veined sorrel. I finished off the dish with a little bit of flaky Maldon sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil. It was really good - nice earthiness from the beets, sweetness & acidity from the blood orange, creamy sourness from the créme fraiche, crunchiness from the pepitas & beautiful freshness from the herbs!